Black and Blue
by supercomsandeggos
Summary: After another run in with Troy, Mike returns home from school, injured. Eleven decides to take matters into her own hands.


Friday night, every student's favorite day of the week. After the 3 o'clock bell rings, they would all be free to the warm weekend ahead. Mike smiled in thought as he gathered his backpack and said goodbye to Mr. Clark. Tonight was to be a very calm night as he, Eleven, and his friends would just get to hang out and act like 'normal' kids. Nothing could spoil the evening!

"Hey, Wheeler!" A voice shouted.

 _Shit._ Mike frowned, _'not today'_ he thought. He turned around, an unamused look on his face.

"What do you want, Troy?" he sighed, ready for his weekly dose of insults.

"I don't see your dorky friends around," the older boy sneered. "Or that weirdo girlfriend of yours."

Mike's blood began to boil. He always tried to be the bigger man, to just walk away and not let the enemy have the satisfaction. But just like everyone else, he had a breaking point. Mike took a deep breath, letting the words go through one ear and out the other.

"I don't have time for your bull," Mike grumbled. He began to walk away, when Troy grabbed him by his backpack and threw him to the ground.

"Then make time, Frogface!" he spat.

Mike groaned and rubbed his aching head. He spotted the bike rack near the entrance of the school where his friends always met. He couldn't make out the other boys because of the developing crowd that began to form, always eager to witness another fight. _'Just stay down'_ Mike reminded himself. _'No matter how humiliating it is, it's not worth it'._

Troy began to laugh. "What's wrong, Wheeler? Waiting for your girlfriend to come save you?" He let one more insult slip out of his mouth. "What a freak with all that short hair! I bet the only reason she hangs out with you is because she's too stupid to realize how much of a loser you really are!"

That was it. That was his breaking point.

Angrily, Mike stood up and tackled Troy to the ground. "El, isn't stupid!" he growled, winded up his fist and landing a few punches onto the bully's face.

Unfortunately, being a bit smaller and weaker, Mike was easily shoved back onto the ground, receiving a few good kicks to the face.

"Hey, get off of him!" A voice shouted and the kicking was stopped. Dustin, Lucas, and Will made it to Mike's aid, after shoving their way through the crowd of students. All three were surprised at their friend's sudden outburst.

Dustin shoved Troy off of Mike, while Will, along with Lucas, helped Mike to his feet and dragged him around the corner of the building. Dustin soon followed, after making sure Mike was out of the picture.

"Hey, you okay, man?" Lucas asked his friend with concern.

Mike's vision began to clear and he saw his friends glancing at him, worryingly. "Thanks for the save," he groaned.

"Oh, dude, your lip!" Dustin gasped.

Mike placed a hand over his mouth and winced. He pulled his hand away and stood up, trudging toward his bike. The other boys followed him.

"Hey, where you going?" Will asked him.

"Home," Mike responded. "I need to clean this up."

"We're still coming over later, right?" Lucas wondered.

Mike unlocked his bike from the rack. "Yeah, that's fine," he said, hopping on his bike and riding off.

Lucas, Will, and Dustin all shared worried glances as their friend rode off the school grounds. Each of them grabbed their own bikes and began to head home as well.

"You think he'll be okay?" Will asked.

"I'm sure he'll be fine," Dustin said. "But one thing's for sure; Eleven's gonna flip when she finds out."

 **. . .**

Mike had one hand on the handlebar of his bike, and the other covering his mouth. Tears stung in his eyes, from the pain and humiliation. He tried to actually defend himself and he gets knocked right down again. It wasn't like last time, in the gymnasium, where he shoved Troy down after he had his back turned. He had wanted to punch Troy square in the face for so long, but that glory was short lived.

Mike parked his bike in the backyard near the basement door and walked to the front of the house. His parents weren't home yet and neither was Nancy, yet he still tried to be somewhat quiet as to not alert Eleven who was down in the basement. The boy took off his coat and looked in the small mirror they had near the front door where he got a good look at his bottom lip. It was swollen and red, with a small cut bleeding in the corner. He sighed and went to the kitchen to retrieve the first aid kit.

What he hadn't counted on, was the box being on the top shelf in the cabinet. Mike groaned and jumped up, swiping his arm, trying to get a grip on the small, white box. A few more jumps and swipes ended up knocking it onto the floor. Mike rolled his eyes and bent down to pick up the contents and place them back in the box.

"Mike?" A voice whispered.

The boy froze in place and slowly turned around, still covering his mouth. He saw Eleven standing behind him with a confused look.

"Hey, El," he said nervously, his voice muffled.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I just knocked something over," he answered. "It's okay, I got it."

Eleven quietly crept over to Mike, trying to get a good look at his face. "Why are you hiding?"

Mike placed the medical kit back on the table and sighed. He still had his hand covering his mouth and was silent, not sure of what to say. Eleven gently placed her hand over his, and moved it out of the way to see what he was covering. Her eyes widened, full of worry and concern as she gazed upon the injury.

"Who hurt you?"

"No one," Mike answered immediately. "I just tripped in the parking lot after school."

"Mike, friends don't lie," El reminded him.

The boy glanced at the floor, ashamed. "It was Troy," he admitted. "He said some mean things about you and my friends and I tried to fight back, but he beat me up again."

"Beat you up?" Eleven repeated, confused by the expression.

"Yeah, you know..." Mike explained by pounding his fist into his palm. "I'll be okay, though. I just need to put some medicine on it."

"Why did you fight back?"

Mike looked up, confused on why she would ask something like that. Then again, Mike wasn't the violent type, so maybe that _was_ a little different of him.

"I fought back because," he paused for a moment, conjuring up the right words. "You fight for your friends if you have to. Sometimes you can't just sit around and take it all in. Sometimes it's good to defend others, especially those you care about."

He returned his focus onto his bottom lip and got out a tube of ointment and a small band aid.

Eleven's eyes narrowed and she formed an idea. "Where did he go?" she asked.

Mike stopped applying ointment onto his swollen lip and looked up. "I don't know," he answered casually. "He probably left the school by now."

 _'By the school'_ Eleven thought. She knew where that was. The girl waited until Mike's back was turned and quietly tiptoed down the stairs to the basement. There, she grabbed the jacket that Mike had lent her and went out the door.

Mike finished fixing up his injury and grabbed an ice pack from the freezer. He placed it on his lip, hoping that the swelling would go down eventually. He noticed that Eleven wasn't in the kitchen along with him and figured she had returned downstairs. He went down to the basement, but there was no sign of the girl.

"El?" Mike called out. He looked in the blanket fort, but no trace was left. "El, where'd you go?"

He then remembered the conversation they had in the kitchen. She asked about Troy and where he was. He told her about the school. _Uh oh._

"Oh, crap!" Mike shouted. He dropped his ice pack, went out the door and grabbed his bike. _'It's like looking for her in the woods all over again'_ he thought.

 **. . .**

Eleven had made her way to Hawkins Middle School, but no sign of the mouth breather. No sign of anyone, as all the students had left to go home. The girl wandered around the area, stealthily, coming upon the path to a nearby park. She heard the sound of tires skidding along the road and looked around.

In the distance, she saw a young man riding a bike. She made her way a bit closer and instantly recognized him. He had dark, wavy hair, and pale skin.

"Mouth breather," Eleven growled.

He started riding around to the other end of the park, and Eleven ran, trying to get ahead of him. She hid behind a few bushes and waited for her opportunity to strike. Troy started to advance on Eleven's location. The girl smiled, mischievously.

With a narrowed glare and the flick of her hand, the front tire of the bully's bike flew off and he fell onto the pavement.

"Ah! What the hell?!" Troy spat. Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground by an invisible force. It felt like he had a barbell lying on top of him.

Eleven walked out from the shadows of her hiding spot, and approached the confused teenager. Troy lifted his head and his eyes widened in fear at his attacker.

"Oh shit," he panicked and scrambled up on his knees. "L-Look, kid, I don't want any trouble, okay?"

"You hurt Mike." Her glare was cold and unforgiving.

Troy felt like he was about to piss his pants again. "I-I didn't mean to," he stuttered. "I won't do it again, I promise, just please don't break my arm again!"

Eleven stopped. He promised? Do mouth breathers like Troy _ever_ keep their promises? Eleven thought for a moment before backing off, but not before she knocked Troy back down onto the gravel.

"Don't do it again," she warned him.

Troy got back up on his feet and began to back away. "I won't! I won't!"

El, satisfied with the answer, let the older kid run off. She wiped the blood from her nose onto the sleeve of her jacket and began to head back to the school, retracing her steps back to Mike's house.

"El!" A voice shouted. "Eleven, where are you?"

It was Mike. El turned her head to the direction the voice was coming from. Mike was on his bicycle, a panicked expression on his face, looking for Eleven. Her eyes lit up and she ran in his direction.

"Mike!" she yelled at him.

The tires on his bike skidded to a stop and he looked over, seeing Eleven run towards him. A relieved sigh escaped his lips. He dropped his bike and made his way toward her, wrapping her up in a big hug.

"Thank goodness you're alright," he sighed. "Where did you run off to?"

"Mouth breather," El responded, still holding onto his arm.

"Troy?"

Eleven nodded.

"Uh, what did you do?" Mike wondered, a little afraid of the response he might get.

"He hurt you," El stated. "I hurt him back." She pounded her fist into her palm, just like Mike had shown her back at the house.

A satisfied grin grew on the boy's face. "You didn't beat him up _that_ bad, did you?"

Eleven shrugged and glanced over at the remains of Troy's bike. The front tire lay on the curb of the sidewalk.

Mike smiled. _'That's my girl,'_ he thought. "Come on, let's hurry home. I'm sure the guys are waiting for us right now."

 **. . .**

"Hey, there you guys are!" Will shouted as he saw Mike and Eleven ride into the backyard of the Wheeler's house. "Where have you been?"

"El took care of Troy for me," Mike said as he got off his bike. "I don't think he'll be bothering us anymore."

"Did she break his arm again?" Dustin asked, excited. "Or break _both_ of his arms?"

Mike shook his head. "I think she just scared him off. You should've seen his bike, the front tire was blown right off!"

"Woah, cool!" Lucas grinned.

"C'mon let's go inside and order pizza," Dustin said. "I'm starving!"

The other boys entered through the basement door, while Mike and El trailed slowly behind. Mike put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You didn't have to do that, you know?" he told her.

Eleven smiled. "You fight for your friends if you have to," she repeated the words he had told her earlier.

Mike beamed with happiness and wrapped her into another hug. "Thank you," he whispered.

 **. . .**

 **Yeah, yeah, a little cheesy on the ending, but I had fun writing this! Anyway, some good news: I've got 2 more ST fics on the way, one is a Halloween one shot with the whole gang and the other is a multi-chapter story about Eleven's first Christmas. They'll be posted around October and December (I'm finished with the Halloween one, still working on the Christmas one)!**


End file.
